![]() ![]() Since starting her speedrunning journey only a few years ago, Kat has collected her fair share of records, currently holding the world records for two different RE7 categories. It wasn’t long before she took to learning Silent Hill 2 and her current favorite game to run, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. She wanted to start with an easy game to learn and landed on Outlast 2, which had fairly simple routing and minimal tricks to perform. While looking for a direction to steer her content, she discovered speedrunning and liked the appeal of friendly competition. Kat came onto the speedrunning scene in 2017, fairly early in her streaming career. ![]() If asked to name a woman within the horror speedrunning community, Katlink would be one of the first that comes to mind. ![]() So in honor of Women’s History Month, we’re featuring five women speedrunners who have been slaughtering speedrun records within the horror community. There are tons of women and non-binary runners who are crushing leaderboards and leading speedrunning communities, especially within the horror genre. The wonderful thing about speedrunning is that anyone can participate and learn to play games fast. While we now recognize that this isn’t true, the gender disparity in the gaming industry is still something we’re working to equalize today. This tactic created a general consensus among consumers that girls didn’t find video games interesting or fun in the way that boys did. Originally sold as a family activity, the video game crash of 1983 forced a reevaluation of video game marketing that targeted boys and sexualized women. Historically, video games have been marketed to a male audience. And with this increased popularity comes an increase in runner diversity. Recognition of speedrunning has picked up a lot of, well, speed in the past decade which is largely thanks to livestreamed charity marathons such as Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick. And it isn’t just for your typical AAA titles many indie games have incredibly passionate and dedicated running communities where even the developers can get involved. Games will often have their own discord dedicated to speedrunning where people can share strategies and optimized routes. Since then, online leaderboards for every game imaginable have been created to track global records and test just how quickly players can complete a game.ĭespite the naturally competitive nature of speedrunning, the community as a whole is incredibly collaborative and diverse. With the ability to save gameplay demos, people could now upload and compare runs from all over the world. It wasn’t until the release of id Software’s Doom in 1993 that a formal competitive avenue for speedrunning arose. Both Nintendo Power and Activision even had sections of their publication dedicated to players submitting their fastest times or highest scores. Some of the earliest games that implemented in-game timers were Dragster, Metroid: Return of Samus, and Super Mario Kart. ![]() The concept of “going really fast” in video games obviously isn’t new. Runners for any game imaginable can submit their times to online leaderboards in an attempt to be the fastest in the world. If you’ve never experienced a speedrun, the premise is fairly self-explanatory: the goal is to complete a game or specific part of a game with the fastest time possible. It can be a wild ride to see someone beat your favorite game in the time it took you to finish the tutorial. Perhaps you’ve caught Nathan Drake walking on air in Uncharted 2 or marveled at Faith Connors phasing through walls in Mirror’s Edge. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of browsing the “Speedrun” tag on Twitch or stumbling upon a speedrunning video, you may have seen some…interesting gameplay. Five Women Who Slaughter Speedrun Records ![]()
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